In the Russo-Japanese War at the beginning of the last century, almost no one could have imagined that Japan would win, and even Admiral Togo Heihachiro, before the war, was still chanting "The imperial kingdom is abolished, in this war", holding the determination to die.
As for why Japan was able to win this "power disparity" war, people often put the spotlight on the big guys, such as Heihachiro Togo, who dominated the navy, the genius agent Motojiro Akashi, or the army god Nogi Yoshinori, but ignored some subtle but crucial details, such as the gunpowder used by the Japanese army, the most advanced Shimose gunpowder at the time, and his inventor, Masayoshi Shimose.
The prototype of Shimose gunpowder can be traced back to the explosion of a dyeing factory in Paris, France, in the investigation of the accident, France accidentally found a material that can be used to make gunpowder, which is what we call "trinitrophenol" today.
In the decades that followed, Britain and France quickly mastered the technology of using this chemical material to make explosives, and became the two de facto number one powers at the time.
At that time, Japan was in the critical period of the Meiji Restoration, and in order to strengthen the weapons and equipment of the troops, the Japanese traveled thousands of miles to France to visit the production process of this explosive. Of course, the French are not stupid, naturally refusing to hand over the core technology, but only selling them finished explosives. But the Japanese were willing to pay money, which allowed them to visit the production line.
However, the Japanese are not so authentic, and the Japanese representative deliberately left some residue in the fingernail cap when he visited, taking advantage of the opportunity to pinch a little gunpowder material to smell. In fact, it was this little bit of powder residue that changed Japan's national fortunes.
The French may not be unaware of this careful thinking of the Japanese, but they believe that even if the Japanese steal it, they can only stare dryly, because they cannot master such a high-end chemical process.
It is true that Japan had just begun to learn about the West, and few people even knew what chemistry was, but the French ignored a very key figure- Masayoshi Shimose, a famous chemist and engineer in modern Japan.
Ever since that little powder was handed over to Masayoshi Shimose in 1888, he had led his students to work tirelessly through the night, and in just three years, he had developed better gunpowder. And he himself, in order to develop this gunpowder, hung his life several times, and finally abolished his right hand. Therefore, in order to commemorate Masayoshi Shimose, the Japanese specially named this gunpowder "Shimose gunpowder".
It was not enough to develop gunpowder, and under the leadership of Masayoshi Shimose, they soon broke through the technical difficulties of safe storage and transportation of such gunpowder, and achieved the safe mass production of this gunpowder at the earliest. It should be known that although Britain and France at that time could also produce, due to the lack of solution to the explosive characteristics of gunpowder itself, accidents occurred frequently. So in other words, Japan was the only country in the world at that time that could mature the use of such gunpowder.
Now that the gunpowder has been refined, the next thing to do is to find an object to practice your hands. Unfortunately, the first target to be selected was the Beiyang Fleet.
In the Sino-Japanese War, although the Japanese army only dropped a small amount of Shimose gunpowder, the effect was very obvious and the destructive power was extremely great. This also strengthened the determination of the Japanese to equip themselves with such explosives in large quantities, and by about 1900, the Japanese army had fully promoted the use of Shimose gunpowder.
On the other hand, the opponents, the Russians, still use traditional black powder, and the lethality and erosion of metal are very limited, especially in naval battles, which have little destructive power to giant warships. The use of Shimose gunpowder had become a secret weapon of the Japanese Navy, and for a time it had beaten the Russians into obscurity.
It was not until the second world war, with the emergence of a new type of gunpowder tnt, that Shimose gunpowder slowly withdrew from the historical stage.
Interestingly, due to the lack of domestic resources in Japan, at the end of World War II, it was impossible to produce tnt gunpowder for a while, so in desperation, it had to start re-making Shimose gunpowder to alleviate the urgency of the moment. However, Shimose gunpowder, which had greatly demonstrated its might in the Russo-Japanese War, was no longer an opponent at all in the face of the more powerful tnt gunpowder.
History Inn Author: Mizuki